Russia plans to carry out 17 space launches in 2018

"If this year we have only 17 launches, then next [year] we have over 35, and 10 of them are heavy rockets," Rogozin said, adding that nine heavy rockets will be Protons and one - Angara.

Earlier, Sergei Krikalev, Roscosmos executive director of manned space programs, said that the next expedition will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in early December.

Previously, an accident occurred during the liftoff of a Soyuz-FG launch vehicle carrying the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft with two new members of the ISS crew on board - Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague. The crew safely returned to Earth in a jettisoned escape capsule.

The incident turned out to be the first failure of a manned space launch in modern Russian history. It is being investigated by a special commission from Russia's space agency Roscosmos.

All manned launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome have been suspended until the commission finds out the causes of the failure.

Source: Sputnik News